Monday, June 10, 2013

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - E3 2013 Edition

Now that we have a break in the big festivities of E3 2013, let's delve into the world of video game music for five fantastic themes from a variety of series and genres. Today's VGMs represented come from franchises like Mario, Viewtiful Joe, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and Super Monkey Ball. There's no rhyme or reason to our choices except variety, so please enjoy! After you're finished taking notice of today's VGMs, take a look at our past choices in our VGM Database.

Most of us probably know the story of how Nintendo of America thought the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was too hard for U.S. gamers, so they reworked the sprites of Doki Doki Panic and replaced that game's heroes with Mario and the gang. Thank goodness that happened, or else we wouldn't have characters like Birdo and Shy Guy in the Mario universe! This is a chipper theme played in every outdoor stage in Super Mario Bros. 2, or as it's known in Japan, Super Mario USA.

Viewtiful Joe was originally slated to be an exclusive to the GameCube as part of "the Capcom Five." We all know how that turned out, don't we. Regardless, Viewtiful Joe continues to amaze to this day, and we can only hope that Capcom returns to this great franchise. Some Like It Red Hot is the second level of Viewtiful Joe, and this particular theme plays during the first act of the level. It's certainly eclectic, even using traffic sounds as part of the percussion.

Yoko Shimomura delivers a magical piece to the Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance score. The woodwind that plays the main theme charms listeners like a snake, except you need not worry about getting a nasty bite and dying from the subsequent venom. Yoko Shimomura continues to prove her majestic and magnificent composition skills, taking the player away to new far off worlds with her music.

Two songs in one that alternate between one another, Apoplexy is a mix of two battle themes heard in Ramza's adventure through politics, corruption, and Zodiac monsters in Final Fantasy Tactics. We absolutely love the soundtrack to this game, and we consider it one of the best soundtracks of all time. That's hefty praise coming from us!

We've arrived at the final VGM of this special E3 edition, and it only makes sense it is the song for the final floors of the Extra stages in Super Monkey Ball. The theme has a grunge sound to it with its guitar. It sort of sounds like something from F-Zero GX, doesn't it. Well, there might be a good reason for that. One of the composers from Super Monkey Ball, Hidenori Shoji, also composed music for F-Zero GX!